Tag: advent reading

Called to Advent–quieting

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photo by Josh Scholten

He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17b

Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
1Peter 3:4

When worries overwhelm and fretting becomes fearsome, I need quieting.
When the noise of news headlines screams for attention, I call out for quieting.
When there is sadness, conflict, tragedy, illness, estrangement in family and friends, I long for quieting.
When too many balls are juggled at once, and the first one is dropped with three more in the air, I desire quieting.
When the ache lasts too long, the tiredness lingers, the heart skips a beat, and one too many symptoms causes anxiety, I am desperate for quieting.
When tempted and ready for surrender, forgetting confidence, conviction, commitment and faith, I pine for quieting.
I need to freeze in place, be unmoving, and stay completely still so I can be a reflection of the depths of restoration and rest
Found in the call to quieting.


Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.
Thomas Merton

If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a glass slipper on a gouty foot.
John Bunyan

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.
Augustine

photo by Josh Scholten

Called to Advent–overflowing

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photo by Josh Scholten

…continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Colossians 2: 6b-7

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
1 Thessalonians 3:12

Overflowing has always been something I’ve been particularly good at, especially first class in the category of overflowing tears. My family knows it doesn’t take much to get my lacrimal faucets going: saying goodbye, saying hello, listening to a childrens’ choir singing, listening to any of our own children singing, a heartstring-tugging commercial on TV, the whistled “Greensleeves” theme to the old Lassie series, not to mention the whistled theme to the old “Leave it to Beaver” or “Andy Griffith” series–you name it, whistling does it.

I would like to think that I’m overflowing with thankfulness, hope, joy and love but it may just be, as my husband suspects, that I’m suffering from an overabundance of sentimentality and nostalgia. …whatever.

He’s right. My easy tears and emotions run amok are not proof my tank is full or my heart overflows. It is only through the power of the Spirit–through the work of His Word preached faithfully each week, feeding my hunger, slaking my thirst, supporting my weakness, easing my emptiness–that I find my heart filling up, bit by bit.

There was a moment today after worship together as a church and a powerful sermon. I watched the Sunday School Children rehearse their parts for next week’s Christmas Childrens’ Program, as a two year old “angel” clasped her hands in prayer over an imaginary manger. I could see what she “saw”. She was looking into the face of God, watching Him sleep, in her mind’s eye. My heart filled even more. I wanted to look into that “manger” right along with her.

I hope when I overflow, it is with Spirit, not sentiment and I continue to look for His face wherever I go.

When the heart is full of joy, it always allows its joy to escape. It is like the fountain in the marketplace; whenever it is full it runs away in streams, and so soon as it ceases to overflow, you may be quite sure that it has ceased to be full. The only full heart is the overflowing heart.
Charles Spurgeon

A beam of God’s countenance is enough to fill the heart of a believer to overflowing. It is enough to light up the pale cheek of a dying saint with seraphic brightness, and make the heart of the lone widow sing for joy.
Robert Murray McCheyne

Adoration of the Shepherds van Honthorst

Called to Advent–naming

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photo by Josh Scholten

He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names
Psalm 147:4

We were given the task of naming the things of creation right at the beginning: plants, animals, rocks and even the heavens. In our modern world, it is a lost art for most people to have learned the names of things in nature, often no longer caring about the order, the taxonomy and species, the Latin name or even common name. We have lost the intimacy of knowing the name of what and who we walk among every day.

Not so with God. Not only the stars reflect His naming but He calls us by name as well; Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Mary, Peter, Ananias, Paul among others– all heard their name uttered by the voice of God. He knows who we are and in His intimate relationship with us, he cares enough to summon us by name.

It is up to us to be listening closely enough to hear. It is up to us to be ready to respond.


“Lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can imagine, with the feeling that the voice she liked best in the world had been calling her name.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

Called to Advent–magnifying

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Botticelli Magnificat

And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord”…
Luke 1:46

The Incarnation allows us to see and hear and touch what we could only glimpse before in a pillar of smoke, a tabernacle, a burning bush, a still small voice. God becomes magnified in the manger with unmistakable clarity and focus. He is rocked and fed, picked up when He falls, comforted when He cries, guided and taught and loved.

What was once remote from us is now up close, magnified like a setting moon becoming huge on the horizon at dawn. He has settled among us. He has become us.


“These still December mornings…
Outside everything’s tinted rose, grape, turquoise,
silver–the stones by the path, the skin of the sun

on the pond ice, at the night the aureola of
a pregnant moon, like me, iridescent,
almost full term with light.”
Luci Shaw in “Advent Visitation”

Called to Advent–listening

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photo by Josh Scholten

The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:10
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
Luke 2: 10 and 17-18

The Advent story is full of listening people. They listen to Caesar Augustus, to angels, to shepherds, to Herod, to Simeon and Anna in the temple. It took great courage to simply listen and pay attention–to hear what was frightening, amazing, terrifying, joyous, distressing, fulfilling.

We too listen to this story with amazement and joy, forgetting the fear, knowing the end of the story and what it means for our lives. We are called to continue listening throughout our lives: for the angel song, for the blessing, for the spreading of good news, and particularly and especially–for the sound of God’s heartbeat here on earth.

Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.
Thomas Merton

Called to Advent–journeying

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In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
2 Corinthians 11:26-27


Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush of His hand as He passed; and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrance and hidden strength in the remembrance of Him as “in all points tempted like as we are,” bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us.
Alexander MacLaren

We are called to journey in our lives; some no further than the backyard, some to the ends of the earth, some to the moon and back. The journey is not about the miles covered but it is about the internal trek we all must make on the crooked road of our hearts, searching for that straight path back to God. Much of the journey, whether internal or external, is perilous and it is more than reassuring to find the signs that He has been down that road before us, knowing the temptations, and bearing the grief we will face.

There is but one map available and one map maker. All roads lead to home and home is where He waits for us.

To journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world’s sake – even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death – that little by little we start to come alive.
Frederick Buechner

Journeying East (from Tolkien), painting by Ted Nasmith

Called to Advent–Imploring

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photo by Josh Scholten

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20


Gentlemen, I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I move that prayer imploring the assistance of Heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business.
– Benjamin Franklin

We are humbled in our need. We are humbled in our helplessness. We are humbled in His attention directed to us when we are unworthy.

So we implore God for His assistance and reconciliation, recognizing and acknowledging our need, our helplessness, and our unworthiness. We are the sparrow on the ground, fallen from the nest, in trouble without His protecting Hand.

Hear our cry.

Called to Advent–Hoping

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photo by Josh Scholten


Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40: 30-31

I haven’t found hope effectively marketed in a tablet, elixir, capsule or syringe, but the pharmaceutical companies certainly try. Yet every day I see young people come in to my clinic with a serious deficit of hope expecting that a pill just might make the difference for them. They have no clear purpose or sense of belonging, too often ready to toss their lives on the scrap heap. Some have already been experimenting with throwing themselves away by drinking or drugging away their fears and anxieties, or cutting or burning their skin to feel something akin to relief by controlling the pain they feel, or addicted to distortions of basic desires like food or sex.

It is discouragement, depression and disappointment that becomes a cancer that metastasizes throughout their life, overwhelming their daily experience of everything around them, destroying their joy, their smiles and laughter. It causes all hope to hemorrhage. And a pill can’t change it.

I can’t prescribe the hope described in Isaiah 40. I can’t even recommend it in the government setting in which I work. I can only show them it is possible; I can tell them that others in dire horrible circumstances, like prisoners of war, or Nazi concentration camps, have felt just as badly as they do. Despite such torture, they found their way to a time in their lives where there is purpose and meaning and light and laughter, that there always is a reason to keep on going, to survive and soar above rather than be engulfed and subdued by earthly worries.

Hope is not elusive, expensive or hidden. We need not go looking for it outside ourselves. It is within, pulsing deep in our hearts. Always has been. Always will be.


To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.
G.K. Chesterton

Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged.
G.K. Chesterton

Called to Advent–Expecting

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The Visitation by Mariotto Albertinelli

In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.
Psalm 5:3

Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of spiritual life.
Simone Weil

During Advent we are pregnant with anticipated possibility, expectant like Mary and Elizabeth, the new life growing inside us about to change us forever. And like Mary and Elizabeth, we are not in this alone, but are expectant side by side, in a community of support. Together we celebrate the coming dawn of love and life that will overshadow the ever-present darkness of hatred, suffering and death.

Be a womb. Be a dwelling for God. Be surprised.
Loretta Ross-Gotta

I treasure (Mary’s) story because it forces me to ask: When the mystery of God’s love breaks through into my consciousness, do I run from it? Or am I virgin enough to respond from my deepest, truest self, and say a “yes” that will change me forever?
Kathleen Norris

Called to Advent–Devoting

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Da Vinci Study of Woman

…and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
1Timothy 5:10

One of my greatest concerns about our modern age is the misdirected devotion to all things material, trivial and shallow. A walk through the grocery check out line is most enlightening about where our priorities lie. Mainstream magazines have increasingly become tabloids and tabloids have become even worse than before. There is more skin and cleavage revealed in the check out line than on most beaches. And these magazines are not being marketed to men (look for them at the magazine racks reading about sports, the latest hot cars and newest electronic gadgetry).

Why do women revel in stories of other women’s cosmetic choices, fashion fiascos, romantic disasters and heartbreaks, then move on to devour articles on ten ways to *whatever* is the latest pleasure fad, and finally how to lose 10 pounds in five days?

Where is the cover story of the faithful widow who is well known for her good deeds for the poor, her hospitality to strangers, her servant heart in tending to her neighbors, her devotion to caring for children apart from her own? Where is the feature on self-sacrificing individuals who live simply (not because it is the latest trend), eat sensibly (not because their doctor told them they must), who don’t have a magazine named after them (sorry Martha and Oprah), and who give themselves away day in and day out?

For that matter, where is the front page story of two transient travelers refused housing, with a teenage mother having no choice but to deliver her first born in an animal shed with only starlight for illumination?

It just might make interesting reading during those ten minutes in the check out stand.

And is something worthy of our devotion.

What think we of Christ? Is He altogether glorious in our eyes, and precious to our hearts? May Christ be our joy, our confidence, our all. May we daily be made more like to Him, and more devoted to His service.
Matthew Henry– 17th century Presbyterian minister